The use of forests for the purpose of tourism: the case of Belek Tourism Center in Turkey

The main aim of this article is to examine and review the usage of forests for the purpose of tourism in Turkey with the case study of Antalya-Belek. The use and conversion of forest lands is central to tourism development. Land use change is responsible for the majority of the negative environmental impacts of tourism on natural resources. Worldwide, forests and coastal zones are converted for the construction of tourist facilities. The rapid emergence of mass tourism development in Turkey, encouraged without considering protection and sustainable use of natural and cultural resources, has resulted in serious problems in forest areas. This paper is particularly concerned with land use change in forests (or deforestation) created by the allocation of forest lands to build tourist facilities. In Belek, a tourism center located in Antalya province ' s coastal areas and the fastest growing destination of the country, all tourist facilities have been established in forest lands under the status of conservation forest. Today, the Belek Conservation Forest is under severe pressure from tourism. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Residents' attitudes toward general and forest-related impacts of tourism: the case of Belek, Antalya

This study investigates residents' attitudes to tourism impacts on forests within the larger framework of economic, social and general environmental impacts. The study site is Belek, a resort town on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, with a high concentration of tourists. The results of the survey indicate that residents have favorable attitudes towards tourism development in the area, but they also show widely held concern for the negative effects of tourism, mainly the impacts on the forests in the area. Moreover, these forest-related negative impacts are not attributed to the tourism activity or the tourist themselves, but to the quality of decision-making by the public authority, which is perceived as failing to exercise sound management and fair judgment in the allocation and use of land. The responses show uniformity related to perceived negative general environmental impacts. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A qualitative and quantitative analysis of Turkish forest policy documents in the rural development scope

The interaction between forest resources and forest villagers has made rural development a privileged component of Turkish forest policy. In this context the main aim of the study was to investigate the framing of rural development issues in national forest policy by using content analysis method. The economic aspect is the most prominent dimension regarding rural development in the context of national forest policy, environmental and socio-cultural factors follow it respectively. Also, the main approach depends on supporting the forest villagers and its development is seen as an essential tool to protect the forest resources